Sorting things out?
by Rumour of an Alchemist
Summary: It's 1998, and Tom Marvolo Riddle has apparently won, so the Sorting Hat decides to travel back in time and *try* to do something about that. Alternate Universe results. Manipulative! Sorting Hat. One-off piece. Humour/Tragedy, rated 'M' for occasional swear-words or strong language.


Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: The following assumes a universe which approximates to canon (other than in the Sorting Hat possessing time-travel magic) until the scene in the book version of _Harry Potter and the __Deathly Hallows_ where Lord Voldemort emerges from the Forbidden Forest and in a fit of temper over Neville's defiance announces he is disbanding all the Hogwarts houses except Slytherin and sets fire to the Sorting Hat. At that point things go off into alternate universe territory.

Reminder: This story as identified as humour and tragedy. I have rated it 'M' to be on the safe side on the basis of occasional swear-words or other strong language.

* * *

It was the moment that Tom Marvolo Riddle (in the guise of Lord Voldemort) decided to set fire to it upon the field of battle in 1998, that the Sorting Hat decided that things had gone too far in this version of reality. Harry Potter was sprawled dead there in Hagrid's arms, the headmaster, Severus Snape, was also dead, the oversized snake which Albus Dumbledore had guessed might very well be a horcrux was clearly still very much alive and draped around Tom's shoulders, and Tom had won.

He might be a year or so dead, but even from beyond the grave Albus Dumbledore (with his harebrained scheme which had relied far too much on pure chance) had still clearly managed to bugger things up for one last time.

Well the Sorting Hat wasn't going to hang around here whilst a delinquent dark lord set fire to it and threatened to disband three of the four Hogwarts houses – especially since the Sorting Hat didn't actually have anything against most Hufflepuffs.

"Sod this for a game of soldiers." the Sorting Hat announced, blew a raspberry at Tom Marvolo Riddle, and removed its consciousness from the fabric it had inhabited, causing the latter to disintegrate, much like the current timeline was about to do so given the magic that the Sorting Hat had just employed. Although the Sorting Hat would have liked to have travelled back in time to the first half of the current century, there _were_ limits to the time-travel spells Salazar had developed and which the hat in a sense had inherited – it couldn't go back any further than thirty years (nor overlap jumps to daisy-chain back any further). Going back far enough to sort the snotty Riddle brat into Gryffindor (or even to refuse to let him into the school point-blank) and seeing how the bugger liked _that_ was unfortunately out of the question.

The Sorting Hat settled for the limit of its range and 1968, instead, which should give it a few years before the Wizarding War inevitably opened to plot on how to both put Tom in his place and how to derail Albus Dumbledore's inevitable well-meaning attempts to wreck absolutely everything.

* * *

The past (or at least what had formerly been the past, but was now the present once again) was ripe with possibilities – far too many of them, in fact. Obviously, the Sorting Hat's primary ability to shape the future lay in its remit of sorting pupils into houses. Unfortunately, trying to predict how sorts might turn out was a tricky business, and if it placed too many pupils somewhere that seemed counterintuitive to where they 'ought' to be, people would start making noises comparing the hat's sanity less than favourably with Albus Dumbledore's and questioning whether it was in fact time to get a more up-to-date method of sorting pupils into houses? The Sorting Hat reckoned that the year it ought to focus on was 1971 – the year in which a dozen or so 'key' players had arrived at Hogwarts, although there were certainly pupils who'd made an impact to varying degrees in the war whom it had sorted in the immediately prior years. And in 1971 the relatively recent outbreak of the first (and hopefully only in this timeline) wizarding war would give it a justification, it felt, for making one of its periodic calls for 'house unity' (which of course would be ignored by practically everyone) plus it could pass any outrageous sorts that it made that year off as being attempts to promote such unity – for which it would no doubt get a ticking off and be told not to make such waves again in the future, and house unity be damned.

The tricky question was as to who to sort where?

* * *

All too soon, September the first of 1971 arrived, and the hat had to put its plans into operation. Ideally it could have done with another decade or so in which to mature those plans – the Slytherin and Ravenclaw parts of it felt it somewhat rushed to put anything into operation after a mere three years of planning with the designs still somewhat rough and ready around the edges – but unfortunately the children it _needed_ to sort were here now, and wouldn't hang around another ten years whilst the hat ran through all the possible ramifications.

It sent Evan Ackerman to Slytherin this time. Last time it had placed him in Hufflepuff, and warnings Evan had consistently issued in a low-ranking ministry position throughout the eighties had gone ignored. Maybe if Horace Slughorn was his head of house this time he'd have better connections and could get a hearing. Of course, putting him into Slytherin might mean he no longer ended up in the ministry or on the same side of the ideological divide, but it was a risk worth taking, the hat figured. Slytherin no more meant 'dark wizard' than two of the other houses did – or at least not when there weren't fools doing their best to entice or shove Slytherins into the dark arts.

Sirius Black went into Ravenclaw. Gryffindor last time had isolated him from his family and shoved him towards insanely reckless acts which hadn't done anyone except Tom Riddle any favours. Ravenclaw this time might encourage him to think before acting and, whilst not being Slytherin (which Sirius Black wanted to avoid more than anything else), was halfway respectable as far as anyone with the surname 'Black' was concerned without being Hufflepuff (which would leave neither Sirius nor his family happy).

Dougal Denver went into Gryffindor this time, instead of Slytherin. This sorting was pure spite upon the hat's part. The Denver children, arriving at Hogwarts in the mid-nineties, had been thoroughly obnoxious, and the hat considered it was doing the universe in general a favour if it did its best to ensure that they never existed. Mrs. Denver _last_ time had been a Slytherin four years older than Dougal, and since she had arrived at Hogwarts in 1967 it was too late for the hat to do anything about _her_ placement this time around. Maybe if it put them on different sides of the biggest house divide, though, with the age-difference already between them they'd never get together and procreate.

Lily Evans went into Slytherin. In the previous version of the timeline she hadn't done anything the hat regarded as particularly notable in the context of the war except stand in front of a Killing Curse and duly expire – and she'd been bloody lucky that Tom hadn't just stunned her or body-bound her and made her watch as he carried out his errand. She hadn't even had her wand on her. Hah! Well, being put into Slytherin as a muggle-born should at least teach her never to be without a wand – if she survived. Plus, if questioned on this particular placement, the hat could explain that it was attempting to break down Slytherin prejudices and assumptions about muggle-borns.

Amos Frankish went into Gryffindor. Last time he'd been a Slytherin, and one of the few members of that house with doubts over Voldemort's methods and the willingness to act on such feelings. He'd consequently tried to spy for Dumbledore on the Death Eaters, but Voldemort had many Slytherin recruits who had known Amos inside-out from their own Hogwarts days and he hadn't lasted at all long. His end had been rather messy according to the _Daily Prophet_. The hat had actually rather liked Amos, and hoped it was doing him a favour.

Remus Lupin remained in Gryffindor. Having seen how he turned out already in one timeline, the hat had considerable doubts that the boy was actually suited to Gryffindor, but it wanted to isolate him as far as possible from the other 'Marauders' of the previous timeline to see if he was actually capable of taking initiative without them around to tell him what to do – and to complete the breakup of the gang, by spreading them around the four houses, Remus Lupin was the one who practically by default got left where the hat had previously sorted him, in Gryffindor.

Peter Pettigrew went into Hufflepuff. Honestly, the hat had been half-tempted to fry the boy's brains on the spot, using its legilimency skills – what kind of idiot witch or wizard thought it might be a _good_ idea to try and help Tom Marvolo Riddle gain a new body when aforementioned idiot hadn't even been a particularly devoted follower in the first place? – but the hat figured maybe if it put him in Hufflepuff he might have _real_ friends this time, who would notice if he started getting too Voldemort-obsessed and stop him – if necessary, _permanently_.

James Potter went into Slytherin. The hat still wasn't quite sure how James had ended up with Lily _last_ time, but it had decided that if it was some kind of fate or destiny that James would pair up with Lily that it might as well give fate a helping hand by ensuring that they were still in the same house as each other. Plus, you know, James Potter certainly had the _potential_ to fit right in in Slytherin, given how he had turned out when sorted into Gryffindor – with the whole sneaking around the school under an invisibility cloak ambushing other students thing.

Antonia Soldine went into Gryffindor. She had grown up to be one of Tom Riddle's more fanatical supporters last time, married a Death Eater, and gone on to have lots of little potential future Death Eater children. Behind the scenes at the Ministry in the early nineties she'd been one of Lucius Malfoy's most vigorous aides, helping him to handle Fudge at almost every turn. At the very least, if she wanted that career path, the hat was going to make it bloody difficult for her this time around.

The hat made other changes, too, but those were the principle ones.

Albus gave the hat a funny look after the feast, once the hat was back in his office, but the hat pretended to be asleep, and successfully avoided (for now) the 'what do you think that you just did?' conversation.

* * *

The morning after the 1971 sorting what would shortly go down in _Hogwarts, a History_ as 'The Potter Howler' arrived at breakfast in the great hall, and news of it spread to the headmaster's office rather speedily.

James Potter had been disinherited and cast out of his family on the grounds that he was 'clearly going to be a dark wizard, having been sorted into Slytherin'. The hat hadn't realised that in middle-age James' parents had become quite _that_ bigoted and narrow-minded, although given how James had turned out previously, it supposed it could have guessed it.

Oops. It certainly hadn't counted on _that_. Oh well, omelettes and eggs. And James _was_ in the same house as Lily Evans. That was the important thing from the hat's perspective.

Unfortunately this news _did_ prompt that unpleasant 'what do you think that you just did?' conversation with the headmaster regarding the previous night's sorting, which the hat had been hoping to put off for a couple more weeks. The hat used the 'when you get to my age and experience' speech on Albus to justify its position, and cited a bunch of by-laws and traditions from the fourteenth and fifteenth century, some of which it might not even have been making up and could have been entirely genuine. Round about the three hour mark of the hat's explanation, Albus gave up and caved in.

Pity. The hat had had at least a couple more hours of ramblings planned out, and had figured Albus would have had more stamina than that.

* * *

In between sortings (when it could pull a glut of information about the world in general out of childrens' heads), the Sorting Hat's ability to determine what was going on in the wider world (or even within Hogwarts) was generally limited to listening in on what went on in the headmaster's office. It was unlikely that news of many significant differences which resulted from the 'adjustments' the hat had made over its previous 1971 sorting would get back to it as quickly as had that of the 'Potter Howler' incident.

Even so, it was rather difficult for the hat to _not_ notice the succession of Slytherins involved in detentions being dragged into the headmaster's office in the months immediately after this 1971 sorting – and every time it was guaranteed that _at least_ one of Severus Snape and Lily Evans would be an offender. The hat swiftly gathered that considerable dislike of Mr. Snape by Miss. Evans had initially arisen in the wake of the sorting, on account of Slytherin not turning out to be the bed of roses which apparently the young Mr. Snape had reassured Miss. Evans that it would be, but by the end of the first week – given that he was the _only_ fellow-pupil prepared to cover her back – she had come to grudgingly accept his assistance.

Gradually the fights and taunts ebbed away – or at least came to the headmaster's attention less often. The hat suspected that the fighting in Slytherin was ongoing, but that it had simply become more subtle. As a result of the initial overt phase, however, Albus now had Miss. Evans and Mr. Snape earmarked as both being inveterate troublemakers and Slytherins of the worst kind (despite being only first years), and anything they were involved in which _did_ come to his attention was severely punished. The hat had never quite figured out Albus' attitude towards Severus during this period of history the first time around, and was having equal difficulty making much sense of it (and its being apparently extended to Lily, too) this time. This was a _muggle-born_ Slytherin the headmaster was cracking down on. She was someone whom the headmaster could have used as a poster-girl to try and change attitudes and Slytherin house's direction but instead…

The best guess that the hat had at the moment as to what was going on inside the headmaster's head was that something about Severus (and Miss. Evans, now) put Albus in mind of Tom Marvolo Riddle and Albus was feeling guilty that if he'd been harder on Slytherins in the past (and Tom Marvolo Riddle in particular, even though Albus had only been a Transfiguration teacher back in _those_ days) maybe there wouldn't be a war going on right now, in the 1970's – with perhaps an element of that Albus was _so_ busy right now he felt he didn't have the time or patience to try and handle any half-blood (or muggle-born) with no connections in Slytherin with anything other than heavy-handed quick-and-simple punishments.

At any rate, Miss. Evans and/or Mr. Snape could be guaranteed something humiliating and back-breaking every time that they _did_ end up in the headmaster's office for defending themselves against their housemates.

The hat never heard of James Potter being involved in any of these bouts, and in fact Mr. Potter was apparently keeping a rather disappointingly low profile – although his distant relations Cygnus and Druella Black had apparently offered to house him over the holidays, seeing as how he had fallen out of favour with his own parents. The hat felt vaguely uneasy about that and reminded itself that Cygnus and Druella hadn't just raised Bellatrix – who had turned into one of Lord Voldemort's most fanatical followers – but Andromeda, too, who ended up married to a muggle-born.

Then the summer of 1972 rolled around with the end-of-year exam results, and the headmaster summoned the heads of houses to his office for one-on-one discussions regarding the best pupils in each year.

The hat was gobsmacked to discover that apparently Sirius Black had topped the year in everything but potions and defence against the dark arts. It seemed that somewhere within the temperamental young aristocrat was a genius which, not distracted this time around by being part of a gang pranking the school and fighting with Slytherins, was expressing itself in academic achievement.

Snape and Evans were an unbeatable team in the potions lab, and topped their year in defence. They got, the hat suspected, almost constant practice in fighting and duelling and dealing with all manner of hexes and jinxes within Slytherin. The headmaster took this news of Snape and Evans' success darkly and instructed Horace Slughorn to keep the tightest possible eye on them. The hat got the impression (as must Horace) that the headmaster considered a fierce ambition to become future Death Eaters as their motivation for excelling to such an extent in those subjects – and the only reason they could possibly be doing better than Sirius Black whom (despite his being in Ravenclaw, which was not the headmaster's favourite house) the headmaster had decided to warm to.

Just in case Sirius could use some moral support in keeping the headmaster at bay, the hat deviated marginally from its plans of otherwise leaving well alone and sent Regulus Black to join Sirius in Ravenclaw too, in September of 1972.

* * *

The years rolled past, and when the late summer of 1975 came around, the hat was surprised to find that Peter Pettigrew had made it as the Hufflepuff male prefect in his year, and Sirius Black (between his genius and family connections) had been appointed the Ravenclaw one. The headmaster predictably played favourites once again, and leant on Minerva to appoint Remus Lupin as the Gryffindor male prefect in his year on the grounds that Remus was a werewolf and therefore needed positive discrimination to show society wasn't completely prejudiced against him. If James Potter had been appointed the Slytherin male prefect, the hat would have rolled its eyes (had it had them) and darkly muttered things to itself about 'fate'.

James Potter was a disinherited nobody, however, as far as Horace Slughorn was concerned, and unworthy to be a prefect. Patrick Picard (a deceptively lazy blond Irish half-blood, who somehow managed to get on with _almost_ everyone in Slytherin) was the male prefect instead, although Horace _did_ appoint Miss. Evans as the female prefect in the year. She _was_ (despite the headmaster's ongoing aspersions) Horace's favourite student after all.

The Lily Evans who arrived in the headmaster's office for the start-of-year briefing for new prefects, come September the first, was a very different one from the one who had turned up for the briefing the last 1975 around. This Lily Evans had survived four years thus far in Slytherin, and was a battle-hardened cynic with lightning reflexes, several interesting scars, and an almost paranoid constant awareness of her surroundings and other people present. The hat was reasonably sure that Tom Marvolo Riddle was unlikely to ever catch this Lily wandless. In fact if it came to a fight between the pair of them and _she_ got the drop on Tom somehow, the hat wouldn't bet against Miss. Evans. Obviously Tom would come back at her at _some_ point, given the unfair advantage his horcruxes offered him – if nothing else – in the endurance stakes, but the first encounter might very well not go his way.

That she had been appointed a prefect did nothing to adjust the intense suspicion with which the headmaster regarded Miss. Evans – although with the war going on and Slytherins regularly heading off to fill lord Voldemort's ranks, it had to be said that the headmaster regarded all things Slytherin with an arms-length-wariness these days. Well, except for Patrick. Somehow, Patrick was able to radiate an air which put even Albus Dumbledore at ease, and to conjure an impression that he had ended up in Slytherin purely as an accident (which he had most definitely _not_ done – the boy had been and still was a Slytherin through and through in the hat's opinion). The headmaster treated Patrick as if he were a prefect from one of the other houses.

The hat sometimes wondered if Patrick seemed to the headmaster an Irish version of the young Gellert Grindelwald – minus the whole world-conquest and muggle subjugation agenda – as from what it had gathered there were certain superficial similarities between the two…

The headmaster concluded his lecture on the duties and responsibilities of prefects, mentioned what big events might be planned for this term that would require especial care and attention, and dismissed the prefects.

Miss. Evans, the hat noted, was very careful to leave second-from-last. She clearly wanted the minimum number of people possible behind her, whilst still having the option of a human-shield to hand in case of unexpected ambush from the rear by previously concealed enemies.

* * *

It was Easter in 1976 when Tom Riddle dropped his bombshell. He announced that the ongoing valour of ideologically misguided members of the auror service and ministry had convinced him that _exceptional_ muggle-borns had places in polite magical society – even in the highest tiers.

Whatever the Ministry might feel about ordinarily keeping 'propaganda' by 'Lord Voldemort' out of the press, they were unable to keep this pronouncement out, nor the discussion which followed.

The Ministry took Tom Riddle's words to mean that their enemy was getting weak and desperate and in imminent danger of losing the war.

The Sorting Hat doubted that by a long chalk. As far as it could tell the war at this stage was going about as much as it had done last time – the changes it had made to the 1971 sorting hadn't produced pupils who had left Hogwarts yet and had a chance to directly impact the war.

What _was_ different from the previous 1976, in which Tom had made no such pronouncement, was that – as Tom had no doubt noticed – in this 1976 the Black heir, Sirius, an up-and-coming genius, was diplomatically as pro-muggle-born as he felt relations with his parents would allow. That plus one of the most talented duellists and Slytherins in the school was a muggle-born.

Tom was making a play for future recruits. In particular he likely felt that if he completely passed over any possibility of recruiting one of the rising stars of his _own_ former Hogwarts house that it risked being a massive hit to his prestige.

The hat was _reasonably_ certain that Miss. Evans wouldn't fall for it, just so long as Tom's spy-network in Hogwarts suddenly ceased to function and the headmaster dropped his ongoing completely irrational hostility towards Miss. Evans.

Bugger.

They were screwed.

Tom wasn't supposed to recruit Miss. Evans. That wasn't why the hat had put her in Slytherin at all. Tom was clearly a lot more expedient and a lot less bigoted than the hat had estimated him to be at this stage in his career.

How was it supposed to retrieve this situation?

Did the situation actually need retrieving? Could Miss. Evans do much damage if Tom recruited her?

Severus Snape had spent seven years in the previous timeline fighting four (or three and a half, really, given Remus Lupin was frequently on the sidelines politely clapping his fellows) Marauders. Lily Evans in this timeline had spent four and three quarter years so far fighting virtually a whole _house_. Her _own_ house at that. With pretty much only one reliable ally amongst the ranks of her fellow pupils as far as the hat knew. By the time she left Hogwarts she'd be capable of making Bellatrix Lestrange look like an inept schoolgirl.

'Screwed' didn't even begin to adequately describe the situation that they could be in if Tom recruited Miss. Evans. And Miss. Evans (Unless she was secretly involved with the this time practically invisible Mr. James Potter – and where was he anyway? Surely his situation allowed for him to strut and show off heroically, but the hat heard nary a whisper of him?) would probably bring Mr. Snape along too, in a two-for-the-price-of-one bargain of merry mayhem.

The Sorting Hat needed a Plan. The situation was sufficiently serious that that 'Plan' would definitely need to be one that merited a capital 'P'. Actually it needed a Cunning Plan. Or better yet, a Really Cunning Plan.

And _urgently_.

Damnit, if only the hat had had more _time_. If only it had had _longer_ to plan this out, and not a mere three years, it might have been able to foresee this and get something in place to counter it…

* * *

In August of 1978 the headmaster had convened an Order of the Phoenix meeting in his office to discuss the gravity of the situation.

The Dark Lord had two new Death Eaters – horribly effective ones.

The hat had concluded by late May of 1976 that the only thing to do was outright _warn_ the headmaster against pushing Slytherins into the arms of Lord Voldemort. Albus Dumbledore had ignored the hat, and Mr. Snape and the former Miss. Evans (now Mrs. Snape) had officially signed up with Voldemort practically the moment that they had their NEWT results.

The Dark Lord, it turned out, was still capable of being highly charming when he wanted to be, and wasn't sufficiently prejudiced at this stage of the war to turn down the chance of real talent, unfortunately, whatever blood-status it might have.

All that the hat could hope was that at some point the Dark Lord would do something that caused one or both of the Snapes to defect or which resulted in their demises before they could do too much damage to the Dark Lord's opponents.

James Potter wasn't a member of the Order this time either – he'd completely vanished the moment he left Hogwarts – although Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were. The hat wasn't entirely certain if Peter's avowed loyalty to the headmaster was sincere or not. He _had_ just spent seven years in Hufflepuff, _and_ been a prefect for two years before becoming head-boy. His animagus form was different too. For the benefit of his fellow Order members Peter demonstrated that he was capable of turning into a goodly sized badger – which might not be that handy or discreet a form for direct observation, but could at least burrow up to long-term target locations for at least listening purposes.

Peter and Dumbledore had come to some sort of arrangement with the auror department, whereby Peter's name and form _was_ registered, but on a list available only to a restricted number of highly trusted officials.

Antonia Soldine, as was, was now Antonia Denver, and along with her husband, Dougal, was a signed-up member of the Order. The hat wasn't sure how far they could be trusted, but they seemed at least superficially different from what it had known about them by this point last time and obviously they hadn't been married to each other in the previous timeline.

Amos Frankish was a member of the Order too, although not currently required to attempt to infiltrate the Dark Lord's organization.

Albus outlined the situation as he knew it. He mentioned that Sirius Black – who had gone straight out of Hogwarts into a mid-level position in the Ministry – was supportive of the Order and recognised their mutual interests, as were the Blacks generally, but that officially the Blacks acknowledged no masters other than of their own – or maybe the Minister for Magic – and they certainly didn't join secret organizations that they weren't running.

Albus mentioned other graduates of the past year now in Ministry positions known to be sympathetic.

He concluded with the Snapes.

"They, alas, have gone every bit as bad and dangerous as I had feared that they would, practically from the moment that they were both sorted into Slytherin. If anyone in this room encounters the Snapes at odds of any less than two to one, I would encourage them to flee or seek immediate assistance. Only a couple of days ago they took down Alastor Moody and two of his fellow aurors, in an incident in Knockturn Alley, when Moody and his colleagues were raiding the premises of a suspected Voldemort sympathiser. The Snapes employed spells which subsequent pensieve viewings have been unable to identify and which we can only presume are magic of their own invention. Fortunately for Alastor they seemed more interested in getting Voldemort's 'people' out in one piece than in finishing the aurors off – although perhaps they desired witnesses on this occasion to testify as to their capabilities. They are the only known Death Eaters to go unmasked, and it appears that they are determined to build for themselves reputations."

* * *

November the first, 1981, arrived and saw wizarding Britain in turmoil. Tom Marvolo Riddle had attempted to attack the Denvers, to destroy their daughter, Harriet, whom due to a prophecy he believed was the last obstacle between him and the conquest of Wizarding Britain, and been ambushed and killed. One of Tom's most useful spies, James Potter, who had arrived at Hogwarts with the ancestral Potter invisibility cloak and been abusing it for years, had finally been overcome by doubts as to the Dark Lord's methods and sold him out.

Yet Tom might be gone, but he was a long way from defeated. James knew about Tom's horcruxes – had indeed himself been entrusted with the Sword of Gryffindor, which Tom had somehow procured and turned into one – and revealed what he knew of them to the headmaster.

Just James, the headmaster (plus his phoenix) and the Sorting Hat knew that James had turned against the Dark Lord. James was therefore going to go to Azkaban for however long it took until Tom returned or all the horcruxes could be identified, located and destroyed, to maintain the illusion of having been a faithful servant, against the possibility of the Dark Lord showing up again some day.

Unfortunately, it was known that another suspected horcrux, the diadem of Ravenclaw, had just left the country in the possession of the Snapes. The moment Tom had fallen and minor Death Eaters had started to defect, bringing an organization which required secrecy to continue to operate effectively teetering towards ruin, the Snapes had collected a handful of Tom's most loyal followers and disappeared somewhere abroad. They were believed to be trying to discover where Tom's spirit had been banished to, and to restore Tom to form and power. They'd invited James along too, but put on the spot by the Snapes James had made an excuse about remaining in Britain to rally support, before he went on to secretly report to Albus Dumbledore.

James had since come to regret the decision, given that Albus now had no means to keep track of the Snapes and that they were not only out there somewhere now with what was likely part of Tom's soul, but with an artefact of the founders that was capable of enabling a bloody idiot to follow a halfway intelligent conversation – let alone what it could do with someone who was already a world-class genius. About the only consolation that the hat could see to the Snapes having the diadem was that at least if the thing _was_ a horcrux it would ensure loyalty in a wearer to Voldemort's cause – and not, say, permit a wearer to strike out on his or her own to become an even scarier dark lord or lady.

For what it was worth, given the increasingly divergent timeline, at least the hat had a decade now to plan its next moves before 1991 rolled around and Harriet Denver was due to show up at Hogwarts…

* * *

Author Notes:

I have by now written several pieces where the Hogwarts Sorting Hat produces sortings which for one reason or another diverge from canon, but I thought I'd give a piece a go where the Sorting Hat has (albeit limited) time-travel capacity. I find the Sorting Hat interesting to write in that one day out of every year it has immense power over the destiny and fortunes of pupils, and the rest of the time it's usually left sitting on the mantelpiece in the headmaster's office.

The scene this story kicks off with seems to me to be a logical place for a time-travelling Sorting Hat story to commence. The Sorting Hat is on the scene of the action for once, it's being confronted with circumstances which apparently indicate that 'Lord Voldemort' has won and that his agenda for the immediate future is distinctly non-benevolent. The Sorting Hat doesn't know that there are centaurs in the forest preparing to attack, that if it gives Neville the sword of Gryffindor that he will charge across and kill Nagini whilst the Dark Lord and his followers stand around doing nothing, or that Harry Potter is only playing dead. As far as it can see everything's gone completely wrong, and this is the ideal moment for a tactical withdrawal back three decades and to attempt to fiddle with the timeline in the hope of getting a better result.

Possible reasons the Sorting Hat doesn't mention to Albus that it's a time-traveller include that it doesn't want it getting out that it has such knowledge/capabilities (it would rather not be dragged off to the department of mysteries to be poked and prodded by 'unspeakables', thank-you very much), that it suspects Albus will pester it non-stop about such magic, and that it doesn't trust Albus not to in some way make an even bigger mess of things if it does give him such information.

The Harry Potter canon universe is inevitably Harry-centric in its narrative, and focuses a good deal on the efforts and significance that Harry's parents, their immediate friends, and the Order of the Phoenix played in the first Wizarding War and between the wars. It seems improbable to me that these were the only people fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters to any effect, or even the only ones who either made significant impacts or _could_ have made significant impacts, had they happened to 'know the right people' - hence the Evan Ackerman, Amos Frankish and Antonia Soldine (and hinted at others) of this story.

For the sake of this story, I have assumed that Albus Dumbledore simply doesn't like schoolboy Severus Snape or anyone closely associated with him. If that differs from what's in canon - well, that makes the universe one alternate in terms of more than just the time travel by the Sorting Hat.

As regards this version of James Potter and his later behaviour in the variant timeline, after being cut off by his parents he _does_ end up spending his holidays with his relatives Cygnus and Druella Black, the parents of Bellatrix and Narcissa. And in the end he develops something of a conscience in time to contribute to the Dark Lord's defeat (however temporary) in 1981, and is prepared to go to Azkaban to maintain his 'cover', having turned traitor.

This story is a one-shot.


End file.
